THE BUSH FIRES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13691, 6 March 1908, Page 6

THE BUSH FIRES.

PLIGHT OF KAYVHJA SETTLERS.

OVER -10,000 ACRES SWEPT,

SELLING OFF THE STOCK

East week Mr. J. Mackenzie, Commissioner of Crown Lands, paid a visit to the fire-swept districts of Oparau Valley, le Eau-a-Moii, and Kawhia and Raglan Counties, returning to town on Wednesday. Interviewed yesterday by a Herald representative, Mr. Mackenzie said he travelled from Te Awamutu through Te Rau-a-Moa, right up Oparau Valley, Kinohaku, and Awaroa County, over towards Marakopa and also through Raglan. Te Rau-a-Moa district had suffered rather severely, while Oparau Valley had been practically burned out. There had been an enormous area swept by fire, the flames having travelled over upwards of 40,000 acres in the districts visited.

"Taking them altogether," said Mr. Mackenzie, "the settlers are in wonderfully good heart. They recognise that if they can only tide over the next 18 months the carrying capacity of some farms will be doubled. Taking the district all over, the lire will have increased the carrying capacity for next season by fully 40 per cent. The present big trouble is that the settlers, who had to buy stock in a high market, have to sell for anything the animals will fetch, as there is no feed left. They would have pulled through the drought all right, but the fire came on top of it, and thus destroyed the rough feed which would have kept the stock going. Many miles of fencing were burned, and that means a lot of ready money gone, and about a-quarter of the area swept was in grass. Of course if we had a! good rain, a lot ot that grass would come up again. "How about those who were engaged in dairying?"

*' They are in a tod way," replied the Commissioner, " for they have to let their breadwinners run dry and turn them into stores and sell them, while probably between 2000 and 3000 sheep and 100 cattle were burned in the fires. Practically the bulk of the stock which escaped the flames will have to go into the market. A 'great many of the settlers were going in for fat stock; of course, " fats" have gone off into " stores" now. At the same time the fires have done great good; they have swept out- rough ' places. that never would have burned in the ordinary course of events, and made the ground ready for sowing with the first rains.''

In further conversation, Mr. Mackenzie said he did not think the insurances would amount to a great deal. One of the hardest cases he came across . -was that of Mr. Mcintosh, in the Oparau Valley. Mcintosh and his wife had lost a lot of personal belongings when the s.s. Kia Ora was wrecked at Te Rua- Point, and Mr. Mcintosh narrowly escaped with his life. He had settled down at Oparau and got together a herd of about 30 dairy cows, and he and his wifs, doing all the labour themselves, and working about 16.hours a day, hoped to establish a snug home for themselves. Then the fire came and burned the whole farm, house, furniture, sheds, fencing, and seven of the cattle, sweeping every inch of feed off the. farm, and leaving him and his wife stranded. Of the cattle which escaped the fire, some had taken to the bush, but the settlers round about-, although hard pressed themselves, had- distributed the remainder of the herd amongst themselves, and were running them as . stores to keep for Mr. Mcintosh till he could get a fresh start.

"That's the grand point about it," went on Mr. Mackenzie, "there is no whining amongst the people. Some of them are terribly hard pushed, but they're not growling about it, and they're all helping one another in the best possible spirit. Everywhere I went I was struck with admiration for the r splendid spirit in which the people were bearing their heavy losses. Mr. Bell's home and Mr. Davis' home in Oparau Valley were also burned out. Mr. Douglas, at Te Rau-a-Moa, had a narrow escape. Bush in front and ■ behind his house .was* burning, and the flames were almost meeting overhead, and yet the bouse escaped, although its prospects of surviving the ordeal were so scanty that everything that could be got out was buried. A lot of the people in that neighbourhood buried their furniture, and prepared to see their homes going up in smoke. Particularly in Kawhia, Kinohaku and Oparau, a number of the settlers, recognising that, help should first go to the poorer settlers, aro quite willing to stand aside and not seek assistance, and are going to try and pull through unaided. Some of those people must have suffered very severe losses indeed. Mr. Elliott, at Oparau, lost 1500 sheep, and Messrs Newton and Perham lost a good number. 'In some cases the settlers had got stock on credit, and were looking to the profit of cows and ewes to pay, but now they have lost the stock, or else have to sell out at dead loss."

' Asked if any milling timber had gone, Mr. Mackenzie replied that not a great deal had been burned. He had never seen so much destruction in green bush before, the fires having rushed through miles of forest of a claws tfeal did not usually take fire. Over on the Raglan side again, between Whatawhata and Raglan, Mr. Johnston had lost 700 sheep, and large areas of grass in that locality had been destroyed. From reports received from various districts it seemed that the North of Auckland had escaped comparatively lightly, and the Bay of Plenty district had not suffered severely. The fire belt was largely west of the railway, between Te Awamutui and Te Kuiti, where it tapered out.